New york City & Washington

Bas Geertsema

Some people call New York City the capital of the world. I do not dare to say that.. but it comes pretty close! This big city is a mix of everything you can find on this planet. Not only all the people that combined speak a 100 different languages, but it is apparent in the shops, bars, churches and restaurants as well. If you live here, well there is not much need to travel anyway..

I spent the last couple of days exploring New York City, visit some landmarks as Wall Street, Central Park, Empire state building, etc. It is pretty cool to walk around in the city, and then watch superman in the evenings to see the spots you just walked by :) There are some really good area’s to go for a beer and I checked out already some arthouse/foreign movies here (I actually saw the dutch movie Blackbook/Zwartboek here which I found funny to do in NY).

Life in NY is pretty hasty. It is all about self-improvement, latest fashion, organic food, healthy fitness, etc. Which are in itself good things ofcourse (sometimes it seemed people in California were not even aware these things exists at all), but here it is really pressing on you. But I guess that’s what makes the city. I felt much more safer in NY than in LA, although I probably haven’t been in the bad neighborhoods here whereas in L.A. you can hardly avoid them.

Because I stay here two weeks I decided I had the time to go to Washington as well. I just come back from that three-day trip. It is about a 6 hour drive south. Well, there is as much to say about Washington as about any political capital in the world: nothing. It is one big gallery of monuments, museums (which are all free), memorials and governmental buildings. Ok, it is nice to see the white house once (pretty small) or the washington monument (pretty big), but after one day you have seen it all. All these big, grey, monumental, spiritless buildings get to you after a while. It was time to go back to NY..

I just checked in for the next four days before I fly (I leave monday, arrive tuesday) in the last hostel where I will stay. After almost 8 months abroad I have seen a lot of beds. It will be nice to have a bed to sleep in for more than just three nights :) My plans for the last days are just to chill a bit here before heading back.

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